First, thanks to everyone who responded to my post. I understand there are no “hard and fast” rules here, just some generalities. I have found Tamiya to be about the best airplane kits (in terms of fit and finish) with Hasegawa pretty close on some models. However, when many hundreds of thousands of dollars are involved in R&D, molds, production, packaging, marketing and distribution, I still can’t understand why so many kits have so many problems. It seems to me that all kit manufacturers should have one person (an employee or outside contractor) whose job it is to put a prototype kit together before mass producing it.You would think on that basis that corrections could be made which would not only improve the kit but also the manufacturer’s reputation among customers and prospects.
Anyway, I’m learning as I’m going like most of us.
I’ve often wondered this too! Seems like a great article for FSM- interview someone from one of the big mfgs. I have seen articles on how the molding is done, but we need an article on their quality control program- design as well as production. How about it, Matt, Aaron, Mark… somebody?
As a sort of sidelight to this discussion, I remember getting a magazine where the review models were not only strictly out of the box, but also unpainted. I thought it was a really good idea.
Thanks for your note. It would be very interesting to have the kit manufacturers’ “kit builders” interviewed for an article or two in FSM. Sort of like letting the fox into the henhouse maybe!
I agree with you; thanks for the note. What’s interesting is that kits range from “nearly perfect” mainly in terms of good fits to “nearly impossible” in terms of bad fits. Go figure.
While I was in Japan a few years ago, visitng my Friends hobby shops.I got info that the owners of Tamiya was the owner of Fujimi line which in the old days dominated the market.